The Hum of a Cicada
by Ondageist13
Summary: Naruto knew what a pain in the derrière was, and Sasuke definitely was one. NaruSasu or SasuNaru
1. Seeer, NOT Seer

DISclaimer- I do not own Naruto, nor any of his smexy friends.

I hope you like this one, I really do.

XOXO- there will eventually be lemon/lime, just not in this chapter. So, the rating WILL go up.

* * *

They lived in a wide spread bit of land next to the mountains, where the closest thing was your mailbox, and the _second_ closest thing was your mailbox, but somehow, even though they were all far apart, all the neighbors knew each other, and each other's business. Gossip travels quickly when there's nothing better to do.

Naruto and Sasuke sat in the middle of a field, meditating. Actually, Sasuke was meditating while Naruto watched. Naruto was watching Sasuke a lot lately. And unlike from their childhood, it was not for Naruto's personal pleasure. This time, it was all Tsunade's fault.

According to Tsunade, Sasuke was a See-er. (1) That meant he _saw_ things.

Naruto had been a little skeptical of this nonsense, but when Sasuke _saw_ that he was going to break his toe by stubbing in on Tsunade's chair tomorrow, Naruto was especially careful around that chair, and ended up not breaking his toe. That, to Naruto proved that Sasuke was a See-er. And not just a See-er, but a _good_ one, because he could _prevent_ bad things from happening.

Since Naruto worked for Tsunade, and Tsunade owned a bodyguard agency, she had the power to tell Naruto what to do. So when Naruto was old enough, she charged Naruto with protecting Sasuke from the things Sasuke couldn't _see_, because, as skilled as he was, Sasuke only had two eyes. Take Sasuke's two eyes and Naruto's two eyes, apply a little basic addition, and the result was _four eyes._ Four eyes are always better than two, even if two of them could be a bit scatterbrained at times. So Naruto watched Sasuke while Sasuke watched everything else, and everything was working perfectly.

Except that it wasn't. Because Sasuke was a pain in the derrière.

Naruto knew a few things about posteriors after having sat through a presentation behind Chouji, Naruto's nice but large friend. And he knew a bit about pain, too, after falling out of a tree and into a patch of cacti.

So Naruto knew what a pain in the derrière was, and Sasuke definitely was one.

For one thing, Sasuke insisted that Naruto leave him alone in the shower. What if something bad happened and Naruto wasn't there to help? And Naruto wasn't allowed in the kitchen while Sasuke was cooking. What if Sasuke dropped a knife on himself, and Naruto wasn't there to help? It was stupid things like that that could jeopardize Naruto's reliability and Sasuke's life.

Also Sasuke wouldn't let Naruto read his diary, which could hold important secrets that… Actually, the real reason Naruto wanted to read Sasuke's diary was because he was curious.

But still, if Naruto was supposed to watch over Sasuke, how was he supposed to do it if Sasuke wouldn't let him?

Sasuke sat up and glared.

"Will you stop talking to yourself and meditate? Or if you want to talk to yourself, why don't you leave?" That was another thing about Sasuke. He was always trying to get rid of Naruto. Naruto would never tell (ok he might) but he was glad that Tsunade was making him watch Sasuke.

"No." Naruto said. He couldn't help adding, "So there."

"Fine, I'll leave." Sasuke said. He stood up and brushed off his pants. Naruto looked up at him.

"Did you _see_ anything interesting while you were meditating?" Naruto asked. Sasuke almost always _saw_ something interesting. Though almost always wasn't as good as always.

"No." Sasuke replied. He was lying. Naruto could tell. After watching Sasuke, Naruto knew that kind of thing. Naruto had been watching Sasuke for a long time.

"How long have I known you?" Naruto asked, tugging Sasuke back down.

"Well, you were given the mission a year and seven days ago, but you met me when I was fifteen. So we have known each other for three years and three days." Sasuke was precise like that.

"Right. A long time. From when you moved from the city to here because Tsunade thought it would be too dangerous for you to be around all those hooligans to now. And I can spot a lie from you from a mile away, metaphorically speaking, and I know you're lying to me now.

"I don't understand why Tsunade assigned you to watch me. I'm seventeen, and _perfectly_ capable of taking care of myself." Sasuke said loudly, avoiding Naruto's question.

"She wants you to have four eyes. I would have watched you anyway," Naruto said, letting it go for now (he was going to get the answer one way or another because he was determined, and very curious), "But now I'm getting paid for it."

Sasuke rolled his eyes to the left, the way he did when he was acknowledging that something was stupid, and poked Naruto in the side.

"I'll pay you to go away." He said in a way that was not nearly nice, but not mean at all.

"Right, like you could bear the chance of getting killed because you _see_ things that people don't like." Naruto said.

"I'm not a fortune teller. I'm not inclined to tell people about how lucky they are. That isn't _accurate_."

"You wouldn't get death threats if you were less accurate." Naruto pointed out, knowing it was helpless. Sasuke couldn't help being right- something that was utterly precious, and extremely tedious.

"If they did things to fix it themselves then the bad things wouldn't happen. I'm not a fate teller, I'm See-er. That means I don't see the way things have to be, I see the way things will be."

"To most people, there isn't a difference." Naruto said. Even he wasn't quite sure about the difference.

Just because you could help yourself didn't mean you would. Lots of people liked the thought of something dreadful happening to them so that they could get sympathy and gift baskets with exotic fruits and chocolates shaped like hearts and kidneys (2). What most people don't know, is that the word "exotic" _technically_ means "not from here", meaning it could come from anywhere, and that anywhere might not be completely sanitary.

After living with Sasuke for three years, Naruto found that Sasuke was not one to eat any sort of exotic anything, preferring everything to be clean and tidy, thank you very much. So it would make _technical_ sense for Sasuke to want to avoid trouble so that he could avoid the exotic gift baskets.

Though Naruto would admit that he wouldn't mind a few chocolates shaped like kidneys.

"Maybe you should stop looking for the misfortune and tell about the good fortune." Naruto said. "You'll still be accurate, but you'll be accurate about something else. It would also help if you stopped telling people that the reason for their illness was _science_. "

In this part of the world, no one believed in science, it was always little fairies that flitted around giving people ailments. Something that people knew better didn't argue with. It wasn't worth the time it took to explain it.

"And I won't be _helpful_." Sasuke snapped. The two fell into silence. Naruto listened to the cicadas, who's loud chirping filled the air and made the clearing seem heavy and claustrophobic, and let his head fall down to rest upon his friend's shoulder. Though Sasuke pretended to complain about Naruto's company, Naruto knew that he was Sasuke's best friend. Sasuke wasn't _always _accurate.

A wagon rolled down the road. Wagons do that, you know. Usually the wagons rolled down the road, disappearing into the purple mountains that Sasuke said weren't purple but were actually green, the purple color was just an _optical illusion_. Not that people listened.

This wagon apparently didn't feel like disappearing into the purple-green mountains. The driver turned her wagon down Sasuke's driveway, and rolled to a stop in front of Sasuke's door. A pink blob jumped out of the wagon, followed by a purple one. The two blobs made their way toward Sasuke and Naruto.

"Oh no." Before Naruto could say "punctuality" (3) Sasuke was gone a small brown cloud of dust, disappearing over the horizon. Naruto shaded his eyes with one hand and watched the pink and purple blob turn and chase after the cloud of dust. They would be back soon, he knew, so he just leaned back and let the sun beat down on his tan face.

Sasuke was always being chased around by screaming girls. That was one of the reasons Sasuke was never tan- he stayed in doors to avoid them. Staying indoors lowered his chances of getting mauled by over eager fan girls, but also lowered his chances of getting skin cancer. (4)

The fan girls that Sasuke had were like cockroaches-metaphorically speaking- they weren't afraid to love Sasuke, even though he spouted scientific nonsense. His smarts just made him more attractive. Girls were odd, though Naruto couldn't honestly say he didn't understand what they were thinking. Sasuke was a pretty _special_ person.

Three figures appeared over the horizon, moving at a somewhat fast pace toward Naruto. He wasn't quite sure exactly how fast. Sasuke would know. Naruto sighed. They were back quickly. He was looking forward to some time by himself. His eardrums needed a break from the fan girl's continuous screaming.

When the three figures got closer, Naruto saw that they were not Sasuke and fan girls. It was Tsunade's two favorite bodyguard agents, leading a resistant donkey.

"Neji! Tenten! What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, running over to help them pull the poor animal along.

"We're here with the exciting news you've always been waiting for." Tenten said, wiping sweat from her brow, "Someone is _finally_ after Sasuke." Naruto blinked at her, not quite understanding what she just said.

"Tenten, he won't be happy to hear that news." Neji said. He turned his wide grey eyes toward the sky and said, "It's going to rain."

"Who? Who is after Sasuke?" Naruto asked excitedly, reflexively looking up at the sky, too. He couldn't help it.

"Some guys that want to use his skill to do unspeakable evil." Tenten said calmly. Naruto blinked at her.

"Oh." Then he realized something, "This must be really enormously big. Because Sasuke gets death threats all the time, and Tsunade never sent you out here before."

"It is." Neji said. He was a man of few words, Naruto had found out through the years he'd known him. He spoke even less than Sasuke, at least to him. According to Tenten, he could talk forever and still not run out of breath. Naruto supposed it was a personality thing. In fact, most people were like that. If you know someone well, you can say and do anything you want because you're comfortable with them. (5)

"How big?" Naruto asked.

"So big, they may be willing to kidnap him." Tenten said, "So make sure you keep an eye on him at all times."

"I'm not a chameleon," Naruto pointed out, "It will be hard for me to watch Sasuke with only one eye."

"It's an expression, baka." Neji said, "If I were you, I'd watch Sasuke with both eyes."

"Okay." Naruto said. There was a pregnant pause where the three humans stared blankly at each other. It was one of those times where everyone knew that should say something, but in the pressure built up between them, there was no room to come up with anything clever. Cicadas hummed noisily in the background, but they weren't noisy enough to smother the awkward silence. The donkey brayed. Finally, Neji spoke.

"So, where _is_ Sasuke?"

* * *

YAY! I'm trying a bit of a different style, to see how I like it...

_And here for the footnotes!_

(1) There is a big difference between a Seer and a See-er. Mostly it's just the pronunciation. However, while Seers do it as an occupation, See-ers do it because they can't help it. It's like the people with arachnophobia that can't help but find a spider in every room. See-ers are also compulsively accurate- a quality that most Seers try to avoid as much as possible. It isn't good business, being right all the time. It gets boring.

(2) The people in the town figured that if the _heart_ got to be made into a candy, then the other internal organs deserved to be candy, too since they were just as helpful.

(3) Fan girls always are on time.

(4) Sasuke predicted a few cases of skin cancer, but no one believed him because he said it was from radiation.

(5) Some people, Naruto included, can't behave like they have no filter with their friends. According to these people, if you don't know them, the less liable you'll be for your actions later, and the less blackmail can be applied.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Not too much NaruSasu or SasuNaru in this chapter- sorry, but I'm gettin' warmed up! XOXO

~Ondageist13


	2. Where I am, You are not

Chapter two is UP! and on the same day, too! I congratulate myself. Enjoy!

DISclaimer:

Ondageist: "Do I have to?"

Man off camera: "Yes."

Ondageist _sobs_: "I do not own Naruto or any of his smexy companions. There! I said it! Happy?"

**_

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_**

LAST TIME

_~*~_

_"I'm not a fortune teller. I'm not inclined to tell people about how lucky they are. That isn't accurate."_

_"You wouldn't get death threats if you were less accurate." Naruto pointed out._

_~*~_

_"We're here with the exciting news you've always been waiting for." Tenten said, wiping sweat from her brow, "Someone is finally after Sasuke." Naruto blinked at her, not quite understanding what she just said._

_"Tenten, he won't be happy to hear that news." Neji said. He turned his wide grey eyes toward the sky and said, "It's going to rain."_

_~*~_

_"So, where is Sasuke?"_

_~*~_

Sasuke ran as fast as he could over the horizon. Maybe this time, he'd have gotten enough of a head start to avoid the fan girls completely. Probably not, but it couldn't hurt to hope. Hope was like a positive attitude- it didn't always amount to much, but having enough of it annoyed the crap out of everyone else that it was worth it.

It didn't matter how far he ran, he eventually would tire (1), and have to return to his home. And the fan girls would be waiting there for him with Naruto pouring them cups of tea or glasses of lemonade. He slowed up and began walking. Honestly! What was he going to do? He couldn't afford to be too far away from Naruto right now. After the things he _saw_ today, there was a good chance that if he wandered too far, he'd never see them again. He could get kidnapped.

That was the thing Sasuke _saw_ that he didn't tell Naruto. Being a male, and a competitive one at that, Sasuke didn't like the idea that he had to depend on Naruto to watch himself. He wanted to prove that two eyes were more than enough to watch over him. So he decided to keep that particular _sight_ from Naruto.

When Sasuke wanted to _see_ things, he would meditate and use his eight sense (2) to feel for the consequences of actions that could occur in the future. It wasn't like he could just pick and choose what topics he wanted to _see_. Life didn't work like that, so why should Seeing be any different?

And, of course, like everything else in life, terrible things appear out of nowhere and stun you. For example, the terrible things could appear in, say, the shape of your archenemies that were waiting in the shadows to throw a black hood over your head and tie you up. (3)

And Sasuke didn't have an excuse. He couldn't make excuses like, "I didn't know this would happen." Because Sasuke was a See-er, and he _saw_ that if he strayed from Naruto, he'd be in big trouble. He couldn't be like other people and say, "It isn't my fault that I was tricked by two men in costumes that pretended to be my fan girls."

He had to take responsibility. If he didn't, who would? When things go wrong, humans always think someone is at fault.

He couldn't moan to fate and complain, "They are the bad guys, so why do I have to suffer?" And what where the proof that they were the bad guys? Just because they'd pretended to chase Sasuke as fan girls, but had ended up chasing him as strange kidnappers, and tied him up after throwing a black hood over his head didn't immediately point to evil. Not even if they were trying to force him into a slow moving wagon. Things weren't always black and white- though Sasuke was pretty sure that the ones kidnapping were 99.9% of the time the bad guys. And Sasuke was usually right. (4)

So with those troubling thoughts in mind, Sasuke continued to struggle to fight the "bad guys" off.

~*~

"So, where is Sasuke?" Neji said again. Tenten looked around, and Naruto, out of reflex, looked with her. This was really getting annoying. He made a mental note to stop parroting everyone else's head movements.

"He's running away from his fan girls." He said, "Though he should be back any minute."

"Are you sure it's okay to leave him right now?" Tenten asked, "We just got the news that your archenemy is planning on kidnapping Sasuke."

"We don't have an archenemy." Naruto said, puzzled, "We hardly get into fights, and Sasuke is pretty well liked. We get a few death threats on occasion from angry fan girls that get told by Sasuke that their true loves will betray them, or that their pet horse will die, but other than that, Sasuke doesn't have any real enemies. I wish we did, though."

"Well, I think that once you start tug-of-war with Sasuke, you will get an archenemy." Neji said, still staring at the sky. This time, Naruto refrained from looking up, too.

"I think you should to find him." Tenten said, "He might be in terrible danger."

And Naruto, being the kind of person that he is, had the urge to rescue Sasuke, if only for the excitement of fighting real, live archenemies.

He, of course, asked to borrow Neji and Tenten's donkey. Which was not a mule, incidentally since it was a male and could have babies- unlike mules which cannot. After hanging out with Sasuke, it's hard not to care about silly things like that.

And they said, Of course it's okay to borrow our mule, so Naruto said, It isn't a mule, it's a donkey, and they said, Of course it isn't a mule, what were we thinking, and then Naruto said, So I can borrow it, and they said, Yes take it.

So he did.

All the while, Sasuke was losing his strength.

It started out as a small pull at his arms, like little weights were attaching themselves to his elbows. Then Sasuke felt his feet, telling him that they couldn't kick enemies anymore. Sasuke tried to tell his feet to shut up.

He kept struggling, but it felt like his adversaries were growing stronger. Finally, he couldn't keep his head up anymore, and he succumbed to the darkness that already engulfed his head. The last thing he heard was mechanical laughing that was a bit too dramatic for Sasuke's taste. That and the muffled chirping of the cicadas.

Over in the clearing, Naruto was having a bit of difficulty with the donkey that was not a mule. It clearly did not want to move. Neji and Tenten had actually been quite relieved give Naruto the mule that was actually a donkey, and as soon as the rope was given to Naruto, they were off, running hand in hand across the plains. So Naruto was left with the stubborn donkey.

"You stubborn jackass!" He shouted, "Sasuke could be dying, and you won't move!"

The donkey was stubborn, but Naruto was more stubborn: and Naruto had the advantage of being a human.

The donkey- who Naruto christened Boutoko, was pretty smart. Through his experience, he learned that if he refused to move for long enough, he would get fed a carrot to bribe him to move. All his previous riders were the same. If he was patient, he would get what he wanted.

Naruto was smarter. He knew Boutoko had a spoiled life- being fed carrots to move. However, through the donkey's experience, the stupid humans gave him the carrot, first. Naruto decided to give him the carrot last. It was an old trick, but it was one that Boutoko had never experienced.

He hooked up the carrot on a stick and climbed on Boutoko's back. By holding the carrot close to Boutoko's mouth, but far enough that he couldn't reach, the donkey would move forward- thinking he'd Won. He was getting a carrot; therefore this human was just as stupid as the last.

Though Naruto was smarter than the donkey, the Boutoko was still smart. He realized he was being played when Naruto was almost to the purple (green) mountains. But by then Naruto'd earned the respect of the donkey, and Boutoko decided to keep going. With every step, they were getting closer to Sasuke.

They reached the mountains, which Naruto immediately noticed actually _were_ green. He'd have to tell Sasuke that when he found him. He felt a pang in his heart remembering that Sasuke was gone. He cared about Sasuke more than he'd admit to Sasuke. Perhaps even more than he'd admit to himself. But he wasn't Sasuke, so he wasn't obliged to tell himself the truth all the time.

He, being a professional bodyguard, knew how to track. He had struggle marks leading his way- and then when Sasuke failed to beat off his kidnappers, he had wheel grooves in the dirt road to guide him. He also now had willing donkey to lead his way, which he re-named Roiyaru as Loyal fit the donkey better than Ugly Man. Naruto was fair, and he suspected that the donkey had feelings.

What Naruto didn't know was that he also had huge storm clouds boiling in the West. As he and Roiyaru followed the tracks, the first drizzle began to fall. Naruto encouraged his donkey to go faster, but he knew that if the rain got stronger, the tracks would vanish. It began to pour. The rain filled the groves left by the wagon, and the puddles turned into mud- the sticky moist kind, to be specific. Naruto buried his head in his hands. Now he was never going to find Sasuke!

~*~

Once Sasuke was securely tied in the wagon, his captors undid his hood. He was gifted with the sight of a shark man- gills and all, a man with a tooth that poked out over his bottom lip. And the last figure was a man with piercings covering his face. Sasuke wondered what would happen if that man met a magnet. In the real world, a man like that would have difficulty as a criminal. Piercings like that would make an obvious police target. But Sasuke had to remind himself that he wasn't in the real world anymore. He was out in the wild, where anything could happen.

In fact, none of the kidnappers could make a real career in the big cities. Gills, sharp teeth, piercings were all extremely noticeable. Though these obviously weren't Sasuke's biggest worries, it was something to ponder.

"Do you know why you are here?" The shark man said. Sasuke shook his head.

"See Pein, I told you he was useless. He can't See on command. If he could, he would have _seen_ why he's here."

"Perhaps he wasn't looking for us Zabuza. What do you think, Suigetsu?" The man with the piercings- Pein- said.

"I think that if we can't use him as our See-er, then maybe we could use him for something else. He is pretty."

"Enough." Sasuke said, "Who are you? And how do you know so much about me?"

"We are the Mist, and we have our own methods of telling the future." Pein said.

Sasuke would point out that seeing the future was a useless skill to have since the future- unlike Fate- isn't predetermined. While everything eventually leads up to Fate, future is more of a "moment" kind of thing and can be easily changed. Future tellers are much less dependable than fortune tellers, and are definitely less inaccurate as Seers. Seers know stuff and don't share it while future tellers often make stuff up.

But he didn't because he had read stories and knew that would be incredibly stupid to piss off his enemy. Even if they were inaccurate.

"What do you want me to do?"

"We want you to _see_ what your brother, Uchiha Itachi, is doing." The three men said in unison, and Sasuke swore that their eyes glowed purple. (5)

_"Who_?"

* * *

hm... this one was harder... lol.

_And now for the footnotes!_

(1) It's a human thing.

(2) _Everyone_ who has a brain knows about the five senses. Some people claim there is a sixth- the ability to sense where you are in space. No one is quite sure what the seventh is, but Sasuke definitely possesses the eighth, which is the ability to feel see consequences from future telling. Obviously. You'd have to be incredibly stupid not to know that.

(3) This probably doesn't happen to most people, but you never know.

(4) Of course Sasuke was just assuming they were men, and they really could have been women. But they were men.

(5) Something else that doesn't naturally occur in the real world. Maybe no one told the men that. Sasuke would have to make a note to inform them of that fact later.

~Ondageist13


	3. Brother, I do not have

_**So, Happy Easter! Kinda...**_

I'm really sad that I missed April Fools- but I was in Las Vegas with my dad, and the internet costs #$^&*Y%I#$ there, so... yeah. But, here is the next chapter!

Enjoy!

Btw- I am not earning any money from this story. Nor do I own Naruto or any of his smexy friends.

* * *

**_Last Time_**

---

_He had to take responsibility. If he didn't, who would? When things go wrong, humans always think someone is at fault. _

_~*~_

_…by then Naruto'd earned the respect of the donkey, and Boutoko decided to keep going. With every step, they were getting closer to Sasuke._

_~*~_

_"We want you to see what your brother, Uchiha Itachi, is doing." The three men said in unison, and Sasuke swore that their eyes glowed purple._

_"Oh."_

~*~

The men looked at Sasuke expectantly. Sasuke looked at them confused. He didn't have a brother, did he? No, he didn't think so. If he did, his parents hushed it up. Very well, because, as you probably could guess, Sasuke was a very observant person.

From the time he was 0 to the time he turned 15 he lived in the city with his mother and father in their huge mansion. He had always thought it was a little big for three, and back then, he knew better than to ask nosy questions- it wasn't encouraged to ask things to which grown-ups didn't know the answer. But his father was constantly inviting business men over, and Sasuke decided that it was big to demonstrate his family's wealth and get people to invest in his father's company. And, though he wasn't completely happy with that theory, he was just not at all a little small piece of a tad bit scared of his father.

But maybe he _had_ a brother. Like any human, Sasuke couldn't remember his earliest years. Even a person with the best Hindsight couldn't recall that far back. And Sasuke was a See-er- therefore he spent most of his time looking ahead, and had no real need for perfected Hindsight.

If he did have a brother at one point in time it could possibly make perfect sense for him to be gone, had he done something incredibly shameful. His father had no qualms, sending Sasuke out into the middle of nowhere when Tsunade found out that Sasuke was a See-er and sent him to the country to protect him from scallywags in the city. A person with his stature had no time dealing with a son that could cause potential misfortune.

He decided to deal the truth to the strangers out straight. Maybe this had all been a misunderstanding and they would let him go. Back to the boring life he had before? Huh. Maybe not.

"I don't have a brother." His mouth said before his brain could tell it to lie. Mouths can by ornery like that sometimes. Sasuke wished it wasn't- he'd hoped he could get a little more information by hinting that he knew answers. The people in the town were excellent at this trick- being expert gossipers- and he wished he'd picked up a few tips.

"We know you think you don't. But you do. And we figure that the only way you'll believe us is by making you see him yourself. That's why we want you to _see_ your brother. We actually need him, not you. So the faster you can find him, the better, for everyone." Pein said.

They, mused Sasuke, seem to be the type of criminals that like to do things backwards and all mixed up. It would be hard to use his street knowledge of criminals that he acquired in the city and his book knowledge of sticky situations to get out of this type of thing, since that kind of knowledge follows a protocol. These criminals wouldn't follow protocol, they would most likely be spontaneous. Which was Dangerous. Which was Not Okay.

"See-ers aren't like GPS. You can't enter in a location and expect me to know directions." Sasuke said haughtily. Because that's what Uchihas do.

"We want you to _see_ what he's going to next so we can prevent it."

"Why are you so interested in him?" Sasuke was still doubtful that his brother existed. However, he was interested in knowing as much as he could from the strangers about him. Who wouldn't want to know about a strange family member you didn't know you had? It was a secret, after all.(1)

The strangers didn't answer. Instead, they looked out of the wagon at the rain that was now practically flooding the earth.

"Boss, we need to get off this road, otherwise, we'll be stuck here. His little bodyguard will be coming soon, and we don't want to be found." The driver of the wagon stuck (his) head into the wagon. Sasuke started in surprise, and mentally cursed himself for not realizing there was a driver. Of course there would be a driver. How stupid. Wagons don't just drive themselves. Not normally, of course. But Sasuke was beginning to think that there was no such thing as normal. Or at least, normal was beginning to become so unpredictable it was predictable. It's funny how those sorts of things turn out.

This particular driver actually was a girl, with short hair and a stubborn origami flower in her hair. In the real world, Sasuke knew that flowers made of paper would not be able to withstand weather like this. Obviously, the girl didn't want her flower to get wet, and that probably made the difference. It's surprising what a bit of determination can do.

Sasuke felt the wagon move to the side, the sticky and wet mud jolting everyone around. Sasuke found himself face to face with a gigantic sword, wrapped around with ribbon to look like cotton candy. It was uncomfortably close to his groin, but by turning to the side slightly he was able to rub the ropes that held him against the cheese grater like implement, sawing through them. It was like a story, and Sasuke knew how it would go next. He was a See-er after all, and even if he didn't actually _see_ the result of this escapade, he was good at anticipating outcomes.

He would try to escape.

He would get out of the wagon.

They would let him get a few steps away.

They would call him back and offer him more information about his "brother".

He would take their offer, and return to the wagon.

And that is how it went. However, Sasuke wasn't expecting to see Naruto's orange form, riding after the fading tracks of the wagon on a donkey. This sight almost changed his mind about staying and learning about his "brother". It raised a question called, "Is this really worth it" which is a dangerous question to have, since it rarely has a straight answer.

But, he ended up staying, anyway. He wasn't sure if he liked the way his heart fluttered at the sight of Naruto.

~*~

Naruto looked up at the sky, angry and upset enough to _kick_ something, but a glimpse of something black and white caught his eye moving through the forest. The object was in the shape of a person- incidentally it was a shape of a person Naruto had been watching for a while. One year and seven days, to be exact. And that was only for the job.

Obviously, it was Sasuke.

He was walking away from the wagon. That was surprising. There was no one following him- something else that greatly surprised Naruto. And then he turned and saw Naruto, and Naruto was sure he was going to walk toward him.

However the thing that most surprised Naruto was that Sasuke suddenly stopped and _walked back_ _to the wagon_. He saw Naruto. Naruto was sure of it. But even so, Sasuke still returned to the wagon!

The kidnappers must have had some sort of threat on Sasuke. Sasuke would never be that stupid. Sasuke knew that Naruto was supposed to watch him, and he was supposed to let Naruto watch him. They were supposed to be each other's eyes, but he just left anyway! This made Naruto angry. He wasn't sure where the anger came from, but Sasuke belonged to _HIM_. NO one else. How dare someone try to _steal_ Sasuke?

Never mind that Sasuke was a person, too. That wasn't important right now. Naruto was feeling a bit high on adrenaline: He finally had a foe to fight- someone he could hit with his actual _fists_, and he was excited to take Sasuke back. With _force_.

~*~

Sometimes, animals come to respect their owners after they proved to be the equals of the animals. This condition is not unlike Stockholm Syndrome (2). Such was the case with Naruto and Roiyaru. Roiyaru felt Naruto's anger, and decided to feel angry, too. Naruto had been hissing the same name over and over, and Roiyaru's newly improved, loyal brain began to understand the concept of _caring_. To Roiyaru, it seemed like something that wasn't worth the pain and unhappiness that accompanied it. Still, his new master appeared smart enough, so Roiyaru decided to help Naruto recover this_ Sasuke_. He started forward toward the wagon, without Naruto's direction. He was going to get Naruto's important person if it was the last thing he did. He was that kind of donkey.

The donkey/human combination made their way to the wagon. It was not a quiet way, nor a fast way. The sticky, wet mud squelched under the donkey's hooves, and more than once, Roiyaru almost fell face forward into the mud. The only reason he didn't was because of pride. Pride _and_ determination seemed to get people places.

The only reason Naruto didn't leap of Roiyaru and dash in by himself was because Roiyaru seemed to have better balance than Naruto ever would. Roiyaru had four legs to keep him balanced while Naruto only had two. Just like with eyes- four eyes worked better than two.

True Roiyaru had two more legs to get caught in the mud, but the wagon had four "legs" and four _extra_ legs- the horse- to get caught in the mud. Naruto was sure that the wagon wasn't going anywhere.

Finally, the faithful Roiyaru and the ferocious Naruto were close to the wagon. He was prepared to attack anyone that came close. A figure appeared at his right side. He instinctively swung out a fist to meet the stranger, but it passed through him like water.

He tried again, with the same result. Roiyaru tried biting the man, but that was ineffective, too.

Naruto stopped, rather irritated. "Hem, could you do me a favor?"

The man stopped dodging and cocked his head. "What?"

"Could you stop dodging? I kinda have a lot of pent up energy, and I really want to hit something." The man looked confused.

"Why would I do that?"

"I don't know." The two men looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Another man appeared from behind the wagon.

"Suigetsu, what are you doing?"

"Pein, you told me to attack him."

"Right, so what are you doing _now?_" Pein gestured with his hands to the area between him and Naruto.

"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to be attacking each other?" Zabuza asked, poking his head over the top of the wagon.

"YES!" Naruto and Suigetsu yelled, turning on Zabuza. It gets very annoying when people continuously try to point out the obvious.

"Guys, what the hell are you doing out there? Time is money." Sasuke's voice came from inside the tent. Naruto ran over to the wagon, ignoring the three men watching him. If they wanted to watch him, they could go ahead. He wasn't going to do anything especially interesting. He most definitely was _not_ going to lose his temper at Sasuke for being so reckless and obnoxious. Naruto wasn't stupid, and he could figure out that _being kidnapped_ was the thing Sasuke had _seen_.

"Sasuke! Why aren't you tied up?"

"Because I haven't been kidnapped, dobe." Sasuke replied easily, crawling over to the opening of the tent. He was relatively dry, Naruto noticed, and didn't look especially hurt. There was a bruise on his cheek, and his shirt was torn, flashing pale skin to Naruto, but there was no blood to speak of, and Sasuke wasn't doubled up in pain.

Naruto felt very wet in the presence of dry Sasuke. Getting wet is something that sometimes happens when you get caught out in the middle of a rain storm without an umbrella.

"Then what are you doing? And what did you just say again?"

"I haven't been kidnapped?" Sasuke said, not quite sure what Naruto was asking. He wished Naruto would hurry up and go away. He wanted to get more information about his brother already.

"No, that thing you said about time being money."

"Oh that. That's an expression. Haven't you ever heard one before?" Sasuke's black eyes bored into Naruto's blue ones. It was a two eyes versus two eyes stare down. Naruto didn't know who he wanted to win. It wasn't supposed to be like this- the eyes against each other. It was supposed to be two eyes plus two eyes, not two eyes divided by two eyes. He wasn't sure what to do.

"I have teme (3) but not from you! You always have to be right. Everything has to make sense. But expressions hardly ever make sense! You never use them, without pointing out how stupid they are, first!"

"People change, dobe."

Naruto stared at his best friend.

"No, _you_ don't."

Sasuke snorted and turned away. "Naruto, I have to go with these men. You're just going to have to tell Tsunade that you couldn't find me."

"But I did find you." Naruto found this come-back quite clever. Sasuke… not so much.

"Go home, Naruto." Sasuke pulled back. Naruto tried to follow him, but large hands grabbed his collar, forcing him back.

"I won't," Naruto shouted. The hands around his neck tightened.

Roiyaru watched, dismayed as Sasuke, Naruto's special person, disappeared back into the wagon. He glared at the tent, and then glared at the man currently holding his comrade by the neck.

Being somewhat proud, Roiyaru had come to believe that Naruto was his comrade- not his owner. As their time together grew, Roiyaru's self confidence grew up until the point where he thought that, at the side of his comrade, they were invincible.

However, egos, like mosquitoes, can be dangerous if they get too large, and may lead to people wanting/ trying to kill you. ( )

So was the case with Roiyaru's growing ego. He was quite angered with the way Naruto was being treated, and charged in furiously, only to be met with a rather large and sharp sword, wielded by the water-like man from before. Though Roiyaru was loyal and brave, he did the thing that most sensible beings would do in the face of a large sword- - -Run.

Naruto pulled out of the Zabuza's grip and whirled around to face his foes. They grouped together, looking at him curiously.

"What did you do to Sasuke?" He demanded.

"He has something that we want to know. And we have something that he wants to know. Don't worry, we'll give your little boyfriend back." The three men leapt into the wagon, which began to move extremely slowly. Naruto might have been able to catch it running, had he not been buried to his knees in the mud. It sucks when that happens, probably because vacuum caused by the sand and liquid mixture. Naruto would probably have to look up how quicksand works. However, now was probably not the time.

"He is _NOT_ my boyfriend!"

At which point, Roiyaru decided to come out from hiding and pull his comrade from the mud. Naruto set off to follow the wagon, to see that it was gone, which was surprising and not just a little bit disturbing.

Boyfriend or not, those punks had better give Sasuke back. Else they would meet Naruto's _boot_ too.

* * *

(1 )Secrets are like Easter-eggs. It doesn't matter who the person is- once you sense them, you instantly what to know what is inside them. Even if the ingredients could be dangerous and unsanitary. Though Sasuke wasn't one to eat unsanitary things, he did want to know about them- even if it was to avoid them. So he was going to find out about his mysterious and maybe pretend brother.

(2) Look it up by yourself, I'm too tired to explain it to you knuckleheads, dammit. But it does seem to be a syndrome that Sasuke could maybe perhaps a little bit be suffering from, too.

(3) Teme actually means "you" in Japanese, not "bastard" like everyone thinks. BUT, even though it is inaccurate to use "teme" for "bastard", I will continue to do so because I am ornery* like that.

(4) Like smacking you, stabbing you with a sharp stick, spraying you with poison, or setting out wild birds after you so that you get eaten and will never bother anyone ever again. However the method- people like big egos just about as much as they like the blood-sucking, malaria carrying insect. Not at all.

*So there

~*~~*~*~*~*~*~

Still no real noticeable SasuNaru or NaruSasu, but there will be more sooooon. Promise. And remember what I said about the T rated thing. It isn't that big of a deal yet though. I'll give you fair warning when it might.

~Ondageist13


	4. I found you, I keep you

End! Yay!

I hope you guys liked it! XOXO

DISclaimer: I am not making any money on this fic.

* * *

Naruto blinked water out of his eyes as he returned to the village. He was not crying- it was just rain water. Naruto wasn't sad- he knew there was something wrong with Sasuke, and that made him frustrated. As long as he was frustrated, he would have no room to be sad.

Roiyaru was happy to be returning to a warm, safe barn. His four legs were sore from wading in the mud, and his head was hurting from thinking about having emotions. He could tell that he comrade was about to go into an emotional breakdown, so Roiyaru hurried as fast as he could toward the center of the "town". He did not want to have to deal with an emotional teenager. And, really, who does?

The center of town was actually just a small circle of concrete with small rings set around the edges. These rings were to hold down the tents that merchants set up. The women and men would travel from tent to tent, chattering about what happened with their families, their "neighbors" and the tent next door. After dropping Roiyaru off at Sasuke's house, Naruto headed toward the town.

"Hi Lee, Gaara. How have you been doing lately?" His friends looked up, slightly surprised to see Naruto. Since he'd been assigned to be Sasuke's second pair of eyes he hadn't visited the center of town very often.

"The real question, Naruto, is how are you? With Sasuke gone off with those creeps in the wagon? Jeez, I feel so awful. What's Tsunade going to say?" Lee reached over and patted Naruto on the back. Naruto knew better than to ask how they knew. It was practically their duty to know everything that went on; time passes quicker when you are passing on juicy information. Besides, news travels fast when there's nothing to do.

"I'm mad." Naruto blurted, "Sasuke just left, and he was acting kind of weird, too. I wonder if they gave him some sort of drug."

"He just learned that he has a brother." Gaara said, "And apparently his brother was cast out of his family for being gay with Zabuza, one of the guys that stole Sasuke. They had a little group going, and then Itachi decided to take all their money and run away to Paris."

"It wasn't Paris. That's the one part we don't know," Lee said, ashamed. (1)

"Do you know where Sasuke is now?" Naruto asked, excited. Now he knew why Sasuke was acting weird, and who Sasuke's brother was.

"The last I heard, the wagon was headed toward Konoha. You know, that big city where everyone has tek-knowledge-y (2). His kidnappers wanted him to try to find Itachi for them, so they could get their money back. According to the person that heard this information from a reliable source, Sasuke wasn't able to see Itachi, so they are using him as bait. In the Red Light district." Lee pointed toward the mountains, "Konoha is located right at the base of the mountain- so it isn't that far away."

Naruto was gone before Lee even began the word "mountain". He raced in the direction Lee had pointed, his energy newly replenished. This time, he decided not to bring Roiyaru. He could run faster than the donkey. Besides, he was going to the _city_. That was the place where a donkey would stick out. Naruto wanted to keep a low profile, just in case.

Konoha, unlike the middle of nowhere where Naruto and Sasuke used to live, was huge. The tallest building was the city hall, and the smallest was the jail (3). It was very complicated, and had his goal been different, he would have gotten eternally lost. However, his goal- to find a club- was going to be relatively easy.

The search was more difficult than he first thought. Naruto expecting there to be no more than three bars in the city- there were hundreds. Then, he came upon a poster that read: Uchiha services- not just for the office room! And knew where to go.

He entered the bar, not quite sure what to expect. What he saw gave him a double take, like the ones in the movies. Sasuke was dancing. Like a real person from an actual planet called earth.

In the town, they would occasionally have hoe-downs where everyone would dress like country-folk and dance around in the tent built over the town center. Sasuke always politely refused to dance. He would always come up with a different excuse, unfairly using his sight to convince Naruto. I.e. "Tonight when I go the hoe-down, I'll fall onto one of my fan girls and kill her."

So it was Naruto's duty to "forcibly" prevent Sasuke from going, and together, they prevented a murder. After a while, Naruto began to suspect that Sasuke was making it up, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to risk it.

So seeing him dancing like a real person was surprising. And scary. Then, Naruto became angry, because Sasuke didn't seem to mind dancing with a random stranger, but wouldn't even dance with his best friend. So Naruto decided to step in.

~*~

"Everyone knows that time isn't actually money, it's just a stupid saying people made up to express that time is important, and shouldn't be wasted. But is it that hard to just say, "Hurry up, we're in a rush", or "We need to move faster", or even, "If you don't get your ass moving right this second, I'll stab you with my stapler"?"

Konan- the girl with the stubborn flower stuck her head into the wagon, "Are you done convincing yourself that it's okay to use your expression yet? The blond is almost here. God, he shouldn't have used the donkey. He's going slower than a frozen mongoose." Sasuke nodded. He hated being manipulated and bossed around, but they knew about his brother, and he intended to find him. And to do so, he was going to the city. And in the city- according to his captors- no one wanted to stand around listening to literal meanings of things: they wanted to say what they wanted to say, and if you could get the gist of it, then the conversation would move on.

Obviously, Sasuke would need a bit of practice, so they told him to try in on Naruto.

It had been absolutely and extremely frustrating to se Naruto's shocked face when he used the Expression. And it was even harder to watch Naruto walk away. Sasuke was very fond of his second pair of eyes. But even though he liked being accurate and technically literal, he was also only seventeen, and no amount of _anything_ would make him give up his pride. It was his dammit! Just like See-ing was his, just like his second pair of eyes was his. And even if it meant parting with his second pair of eyes for a moment, he was going to collect what was his.

Konan apparently had gotten sick of being stuck in the mud, and using her determination- and a bit of manual labor- yanked the horse and wagon out of the mud. The wagon began hurdling through the forest at a pace Sasuke didn't think was possible for a wagon.

The wagon stopped outside of town, and the five of them got out. If it was inappropriate to take a donkey into a city, then it was atrocious to think of bringing in a wagon. In the city, people are very proud of their tek-knowledge-y.

The apartment the men- and Konan- shared was tiny. And messy. But it wasn't surprising, because if you want to have neighbors, you have to give stuff up. Like personal space, and cleanliness.

In the apartment there were three small-medium sized jars. Sasuke wasn't sure exactly how big they were, but it didn't really matter anyway because none of them could fit the items that were written on the labels: Grapes, Apples, Blueberries. Maybe some blueberries would fit, but grapes hardly any grapes would fit at all! And don't even start on the apples. There is no way even one apple would ever fit. Not even through the top. (4)

"Focus, Sasuke," Pein said, noticing Sasuke was becoming distracted.

"I don't get to choose what I get to see," Sasuke said, "And I don't remember what Itachi looks like."

"Until you can, we need to make money. Ever since Itachi ran away with Deidara, we've hardly been able to make ends meet," Suigetsu said happily, "So we're gonna put you to work in the Red Light district. It'll be pretty easy for you to get money, and you might be a good distraction. And we know Deidara has a tendency to get drunk, and we know Itachi has a tendency to want to protect people. We would stake it out all on our own, but it seems that Itachi manages to avoid us whenever we try to capture him.

"We heard from the gossipers in your "town" that Itachi misses you, but can't go visit you because he's afraid, and knows you're safe with your second pair of eyes. And that's where our plan come in. If he sees you without your eyes, he'll come to protect you himself, yeah?"

"We aren't actually going to use you as a stripper, but having you at the club with us should be enough to catch Itachi's attention. Suigetsu is letting his imagination run him over like a cement truck. Suigetsu, you realize that we aren't actually selling Sasuke was a stripper, right?"

Sasuke knew about the Red Light District. He'd been fifteen when he left, and wasn't stupid, even though his father tried to keep him from getting dirty street habits. He knew there would be other ways to get money- he just suspected Suigetsu wanted to see him dancing on a pole. If Suigetsu wanted to see someone dance on a pole so much, why didn't he just video himself doing it? But if it would help him find his brother, then he would suck up his See-er ass and do it.

And that is how he ended up in one of the most shameful, awful places he ever could have ended up. Ever. And they even put up posters.(5)

The club was crowded and busy. Sasuke got his ass slapped by many bare clad women and had to close his eyes at the sight of the strippers. Sasuke as a fifteen year old had never been very interested in sex- partly because his fan girls tried to seduce him to the point where it got disgusting, and partly because he knew what babies looked like in and out of the womb and wasn't _particularly _interested in making his own. He was glad he wasn't one of the male strippers, either- they looked like they took way too many Viagra to be comfortable.

----

Sharing is something most people learn to do at a very young age. But just because you knew how to do something didn't mean you should to it. For instance, Sasuke knew how to pick his nose, but he knew it was inappropriate to do it in public- or in private. In this case, Sasuke was not going to share his spit with random strangers. And he would rather they didn't share theirs with him, either.

It just wasn't sanitary.

Karin, on the other hand, didn't care. Neither did Suigetsu. Sasuke turned away from watching them share bodily fluids and decided to dance. Naruto always tried to make him go to the stupid hoe-downs where old women dressed up their cows, and danced wearing bonnets and such. Just because you lived out in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean you should act like you don't live in the twenty-first century. Nothing would make Sasuke drunk enough to dress with a cow wearing a bonnet. (6) That was almost if not more disturbing than a naked woman that could stuff money under her breasts.

But Sasuke was _good_ at dancing. He _knew how_. And now he had a chance to dance like he lived in the real world and not the surrealistic reality the people in the middle of nowhere created for themselves.

But, anyway, back to Naruto- was that him Sasuke saw in the crowd? Because if it was, then Sasuke should probably hide. Right now.

It was too late. Naruto caught Sasuke's arms.

"I can't believe you'd go to a place like this with random strangers, but you won't even come to a hoe-down with your best friend." Naruto shouted over the crowd.

Crowds have a tendency to be loud. Sasuke isn't sure why. If all the people just spoke in quieter tones, it would be more effective than yelling at the top of your voice. The sound wouldn't carry over from one person's conversation to another, and it would just make more sense. People don't _think_.

"And I understand that you want to find your brother. I'm fine with that. But I have to be your second pair of eyes, Sasuke. For one, Tsunade would kill me…"

The lighting in the club was making Sasuke see strange things. His whole life, actually, played in flashes in Naruto's eyes.

He had known Naruto before he'd even known Naruto was going to be his second pair of eyes. Naruto had been there, with his too- contagious smile, making everyone in the stupid round block of concrete smile, too. Not just smile, but smile at him, Sasuke. Sasuke, who'd never had a smile in his life- who'd always gotten angry looks at his father from dazing off and _See-ing_ stuff, and dazed, concerned looks from his mother because she thought he was ill.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but Sasuke's mind decided that it would be a good idea to kiss Naruto.

It was surprising, how easy it was to lean forward and catch the lips of the person you didn't want to admit you loved. Better than a stranger. More people should try it. The initial shock of doing something so impulsively is pleasant, but the feeling of their lips is better, and Sasuke liked the way the whole club seemed to freeze, like in a movie.

"What's another reason?" Sasuke asked, pulling away. Naruto gazed at him blearily. Sasuke could tell that that particular question would need embellishment.

"You said that one reason you have to be my second pair of eyes is because of Tsunade. What's another reason? You can't say "one" without another- more are expected."

"Has anyone ever told you that your need to be accurate is utterly precious, but extremely tedious?" Naruto asked.

"…"

"Ok, well, the second reason is you need protection." Sasuke began to push him away, "And the third is that if I can't watch you, I don't want to watch anyone else."

"Well, I'm glad you finally found each other, but I would remind you, Sasuke, that you still have a duty to help us find your brother." Pein said. Sasuke nodded.

"Naruto's coming." Naruto beamed, Pein shrugged, and Sasuke's mind felt clearer than it had in a while. He _sight_ and sight were becoming stronger, and he was overall confident that, with Naruto at his side, he could still an independent and responsible seventeen year old. He would just be an extremely lucky one. Not everyone got to have a second pair of eyes. Even if they were a bit scatterbrained at times.

~*~

Sometimes, you need something that you don't want, and it takes someone taking it away to make you understand that you need it. Some things you don't know you have, but when you find out you have it, you think about it all the time. And a few things you don't know you ever had, and when someone tells you that you lost it, you immediately want it back. This is such for selfish people, and it is such for all people.

~Owari~

* * *

*sighs* Well, it turned out a bit more "fluffily" then I meant it, but oh well.

Footnote time! :p

(1) it's difficult, having the burden of information. You have to use your ears- things that can miss parts of information and cause serious misunderstandings. For instance, one time, Gaara and Lee were arguing about spandex and whether or not it was appropriate. Gaara thought he heard Lee say that he wanted wine, but in reality, Lee said that he thought spandex was fine. It didn't turn out well. * Though in Gaara's excuse, wine would fit in perfectly with their conversation since the only way Gaara was ever going to touch spandex was if he was too drunk to know what it was.

(2) tek-knowledge-y: the way people that have odd accents say technology. In _parts_.

(3) Criminals that follow the rules- unlike Sasuke's criminals- don't get caught in the big city. Where as in the middle of nowhere, the jail is the largest building- as well as the emptiest. Its good to be prepared.

(4) He found out that it was _dried_ grapes and Apple _Sauce_, but why didn't they just say? And dried grapes are just raisins, anyway.

(5) See-ers are to see, not be seen by scary strangers. It's okay to be seen when you have your second pair of eyes in the middle of nowhere where people dress up their cows in bonnets, but in the big, real world, See-ers might get tomatoes thrown at them by Seers afraid of losing business.

(6) It wasn't like he'd lived in the sticks his whole life- even though trying to make his four eyes all watch what they were supposed to be watching at the same time made it feel like forever. He knew what alcohol was, and he used it- it helped keep away some of his _sights_, just like a paper bag over the head of an arachnophobia victim helps them not see spiders.

~*~

Hm. Well, I didn't finish it very gracefully, but oh well. You'll just have too look for the sequel! Though, it's going to be from the stand point of Itachi. Tryin' new things every day, right?

~ondegeist13


End file.
